[NYTr] Cuba Develops Innovative Bio-Meteorological Forecasting System
 
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:07:38 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Granma Daily - 6 July, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art109.html

Bio-Meteorological Forecasting: a Scientific Innovation

By ORFILIO PELAEZ

Cuban scientists have designed a bio-meteorological forecasting system
aimed at predicting with enough advance time, when atmospheric
conditions can lead to a sudden rise in a group of chronic and
non-communicable diseases, including bronchial asthma, high blood
pressure, cardiovascular problems, headaches and other pathologies.

Dr. Luis Lecha, of the Villa Clara Environmental Research and Services
Center, and principal author of the study, told Granma that the main
objective is to provide information to health care institutions and
especially to the emergency services.

Making this information available in advance will allow public health
officials to take measures to deal with a possible increase in the
number of patients at health care facilities.

These measures include assuring that the required pharmaceuticals are
available and to reinforce, when the need arises, the availability of
doctors and nurses in the emergency wards.

The forecast takes into consideration data on the probable behavior in
the air's oxygen content over different periods; the type and
characteristics of the prevailing weather conditions, and the presence
of local effects caused by atmospheric pollution.

Dr. Lecha underscored that on December 1, 2006, a pilot research project
began in the Sagua La Grande municipality of Villa Clara province in
central Cuba, aimed at monitoring on a daily basis the incidence of
those diseases and their association with sudden changes in the weather
conditions.

According to the preliminary results presented by Dr. Lecha during the
Sixth International Environment and Development Confernce now taking
place in Havana, the bio-meteorological forecast has achieved an
effectiveness of 85 percent.
       
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